The Year Apart
by SketchyCord
Summary: What do a hippie, a bachelor, a presumed dead teen, and a...Seth Cohen have in common? Read to find out about Summer, Ryan, Marissa, and Seth's journey back to each other during a year apart. SS RM -abandoned-
1. The History

**The History **

[AN: Ok, so this is the very put off beginning of the second installment of my Future Fic Series. It was put off because this is very hard for me to write, and the plot was hard to figure out. Right now, you see where the core four are at the beginning of the year Summer is at GEORGE, Seth at RISD, Ryan at Berkeley, and Marissa is, who knows where. This part of the story will probably not last that long, the is just the back story for part three, and you guys have _got _to review and say what you want to happen. Thanks to Georgia for helping me out so much with Ryan's plot. :D I do not own the OC, Fruits Basket, or Journey.

Summer hopped out of the GEORGE bus and surveyed her surroundings. She was in Oregon, going to speak to her first group of kids. She couldn't believe where she had ended up. She reflected on the events that had occurred on graduation, and had ended up triggering this whole thing. Her at GEORGE, Ryan at Berkeley, and Seth at RISD. All sans Marissa. They'd gone through more than a year without Marissa who had run away to Greece, causing everything to change. Marissa basically dropped off the face of the Earth, but not before getting in huge fights with Summer, Seth, and Ryan about the future. One day, they got news that Marissa had drowned. Summer rejected all things Orange County, Seth wasted his days away calling Summer and trying to get her to open up to him, and Ryan turned to cage fighting.** [AN: This is when the events of season 4 start to take place, basically exactly the same way **Ryan and Taylor started dating, Seth and Summer realized they were each other's destiny. Then, the Earthquake happened, and everything that had been built up for the past year came crashing down around them. **[AN: The End's Not Near, It's Here, goes the same, except Ryan and Taylor decide they are actually better off apart. In the fast forward, Marissa and Taylor are both Summer's maids of honor.**

So, here Summer was, at GEORGE, following her dreams. Or one of them. Across the country in Providence, Seth was learning how to be independent of Summer and Ryan. Just down the coast in Berkeley, Ryan was learning to be an older brother. Summer marched into the auditorium of Portland High School, ready to spread her message. Things seemed so right. Except that Marissa wasn't there to see it all unfold.

Seth was at RISD, walking the halls with Borris, his room mate. He'd already been here for the past year, so he was well acquainted with the campus. They had been having a really good time, talking about manga and anime, and how it relates to the real world. Borris was an intern at Tokyo Pop.

"And they're trying to sign with Natsuki Takaya, so they can publish her next manga, but really, we all know it will never be as successful as Fruits Basket." Borris explained. Definitely not Ryan.

"I read part of the manga, but it was way too girly for me. I am more of a Shonen fan." Seth stated as he swung his arms lazily at his sides.

"Now as far as girls go here, I'd say Brown girls are way hot man, so you should go over there looking for a date or whatever. They're all so into the environment and other liberal crap, all you have to do is say you're voting for Hilary in 08. Brown girls are so easy." Borris told Seth with a sly grin.

"Uh, dude, first of all, I have a serious girlfriend, who goes to Brown. And second, she's into that crap." Seth said, smiling, thinking about how Summer would totally hate this guy and want to kick his ass.

"Oh wow. I uh, I can't wait to meet her. That's great." Borris said nervously, running a hand through unkempt brown hair.

"She's sort of touring the country with GEORGE right now, but when she gets back, I'm sure she'd love to meet you too," Seth said, and then mumbled under his breath, "But she'll probably kill you when I tell her your theories about Brown girls."

Borris heard the last part, or got the gist of it, and nervously wrung his hands. "So, uh, what's her name?" Borris asked, trying to break the tension.

"Summer." Seth said sadly, wishing she were there with him to tell Borris herself. And maybe she would've been, if things had gone differently, but this was for the best for now.

Across the country, Ryan was hanging out with a bunch of other kids who were into the same kinds of things he was, including Journey, architecture, and not talking all that much. He had a lot of girls approach him and ask him stuff like "Where are you from," or "Walk me to my next class?" but none of them were Marissa.

Marissa, who was actually alive and living the sweet life in Greece. Marissa, who was almost ready to return to her life in Newport. She'll find that things are definitely not as she left them.


	2. Working On The Night Moves

**Working On The Night Moves**

[No one is probably even reading this anymore, since I took so long to update, but I will post this anyway to see if anyone is still interested. This takes place 6 months after the last post. R&R!

Marissa walked around the ship, surveying her surroundings. She was in one of her quiet moves. They'd come and gone for the last year and a half, but lately, they'd been increasing more and more. Summer...Seth..._Ryan_. She knew she should call them and let them know she was alright, but she just had this feeling that perhaps they were better off without her. As stupid as it would've sounded to anyone else, she knew she was right to have taken that year off, that she did not regret. But not telling her best friends and sometimes boyfriend that she'd survived an almost fatal accident? That was the part people would truly think was insane. That was why she was calling the Cohens today. She picked up her cell from where it was sitting on a nearby chair and dialed the number. It rang a few times.

"Hello," An unfamiliar voice answered.

"Um...hi, is Ryan around?" Marissa asked the person on the other end.

"Ryan...? No Ryan lives here," The person said.

"What?" Marissa asked, confused. And then it hit her. "Have the Cohens...moved out or something?" Marissa inquired.

"Oh, the Cohens, their house was destroyed in the recent earth quake," The person explained. "This number is being used somewhere else now. The Cohens moved to Berkeley." The person added.

"Oh, um, well thanks so much," Marissa gratefully said.

"No problem, take care," was the response. And then a dial tone. Marissa proceeded to call Seth, Summer, and Ryan's cells. No luck. They'd probably changed numbers when they went to college. College...moving...earthquakes...Marissa realized how much over her friend's lives she'd missed. She was going to Berkeley. She felt happy, and then groaned. Marissa realized that it would be months before she could go to Berkeley; she was under contract with the boating company. She'd just have to tough it out until then.

[I know it's short, but this is all leading up to when they meet up again, there will be four more chapters, three more short ones centering on Seth, Summer, and Ryan individually, and then all four of them meeting up at Berkeley. The Berkeley chapter will be about reactions to everyone's changes in personality/Marissa leaving. Immediately after, the events in The Four Seasons (the proposals) take place.


	3. Love You 'Till The End

**Love You 'Till The End**

[Written in Summer's POV, thanks so much for all the reviews, this is about when Seth and Summer meet up again after months apart. The next chapter, which will be in Seth's POV, will explain what happens with Seth while he's at RISD. Very minor language, the same kind as used on the show sometimes, but just a warning.

I walked onto the GEORGE bus only with a lot of effort. For months I had been waiting for this day, but I was so annoyed and tired now. Tired from all the campaigning and annoyed because I looked like crap. My dark hair was tied back in a disheveled pony tail and my nails were painted with chipped black polish. Hopefully he wouldn't care, though. Hopefully he would be as glad to see me as I was to see him. When I finally reached my seat, I turned on my green ipod and immediately selected the play list he made for me before I left. I sighed and tried to relax into my seat. I knew the trip from New York, NY to Providence would take ages, so this was the only way to combat it. Louis, this guy who'd been hitting on me all trip, was staring at me. I tried to ignore it. But, he had decided to sit right next to me, so it was kind of tough. Finally, he tapped my shoulder, which caused my back pack to fall out of my lap. I rolled my eyes and picked up the bag, shoving in pictures of Seth, Ryan, Taylor, and Marissa back in, since they'd been sitting on top in case I got bored during the drive.

"What do you want?" I asked him sassily, with a glare for good measure. I tugged my head phones out of my ears roughly.

"I like 'em feisty," he jeered. I regarded him with a disgusted countenance.

"Great," I replied cooly.

"And hot," Louis added smiling widely, but not the way that he does. So I couldn't say I care much for his stupid 'smile.' Because it wasn't his.

"In case you haven't noticed, I am not interested," I told him. I couldn't believe traits from the 'old' Summer were showing so strongly today. I guess I was still integrating into the new Activist-Shopper Summer.

"But why?" Louis asked, and I scoffed. "I mean, this whole trip you haven't gone out with one guy, or even showed any interest in...well, any of the guys here. I don't get it." Louis clarified.

"I have a boyfriend..." I trailed off.

"Oh, wow, okay, this whole time you've had a boyfriend...like a long distance relationship?" Louis inquired, obviously surprised and confused.

"Um, yeah," I answered, not really sure what he was getting at here.

"Oh...wow. So he's just in Providence, not being watched and...I mean...he easily could've cheated on you," Louis explained. He had stepped over the line now.

"Do I _look _like the kind of girl a guy would cheat on?" I demanded, sent into a semi-panic spiral. For about a split second. Then I remembered my boyfriend isn't the kind of guy who cheats on his girlfriend. No, as far as I could remember, he'd _never _cheated on me in the entire 1000 days we'd been dating.

"No...of course not Summer..." Louis said, as he slowly got up to sit elsewhere. Rage blackouts get rid of morons like him every-time.

I fell asleep for the remainder of the drive. That's what I'd like to think, anyway. That held true until we reached Hartford, Connecticut. A lot of people got dropped off at Yale, including Louis, to my great relief. I sighed when _Forever Young _by the Youth Group came on. It reminded me of Marissa and Ryan's relationship_ a lot. _I pulled out my pictures. There was one taken while the four of us were in TJ. Wow, Seth, Ryan, and I looked a lot older now. I switched the song to _The Way We Get By _by Spoon, because it reminded me a lot of the times where Ryan, Seth, Marissa, and I were the fantastic four, the core four, the Atomic County Teens, and the fab four all rolled up into one. The Beauty, the Brains, the Brawn, and the Boobs. Once upon a time...but it seemed so long ago. Now Marissa's gone, Seth's waiting for me in Rhode Island, and Ryan's in Berkeley working his ass off in school, but still wondering each day why Marissa had to...die. But the memories of the four of us, and my more recent ones with Taylor, Ryan, and especially Seth, were enough to keep me warm for now, and I drifted off to sleep again.

When I woke again, the bus was coming to a screeching halt. I saw snow lining the windows now. I knew where I was immediately, or I thought I did. I felt elation washing over my body, and I hadn't even seen him yet. I sprang to my feet and pushed past the many people trying to get off the bus too. And there he was, I could see him from where I was standing on the stairs of the bus. He was about 10 feet from me. He was staring at his feet for a long time, but he finally looked up and saw me. He grinned widely, but he let the smile take a long time to fully play on his lips. This time, he let me run into his arms, which he had opened wide. He wrapped his arms around my entire frame and kissed my forehead, and smiled as he trailed kisses in a tantalizingly slow manner down my face, and I waited patiently for him to kiss my lips. Tears began to stream down my face, and I was surprised they didn't freeze, considering how cold it was out there. Our breath mixed visibly in the cool night air.

"Cohen...I've missed you more than you could possibly imagine," I whispered into his ear. He nodded and offered me his hand. I accepted, and felt a surge of energy travel up my arm.

"I can imagine," He answered, truth evident in his tone. "I missed you more," Cohen added as he twisted his fingers in mine. He was so sincere.

And as we walked up the stairs to the apartment we were going to share now, I finally completely, 100, understood how to tell if someone was your Sandy Cohen. Because I was looking right at mine.


End file.
